The West Live: Premier Mark McGowan speaks to Jenna Clarke about the six-month ban on evictions amid COVID-19 job losses

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Sneaky tenants who may be planning to abuse the WA Government’s new six-month ban on evictions can still be sued and lose their credit rating, the State’s Premier has warned.

In an exclusive interview with The West Live host Jenna Clarke this morning, Mark McGowan said there will be “consequences” for people who refuse to pay their rent despite being financially capable of doing so.

The WA Government will today introduce amended laws to State Parliament protecting residential tenants from eviction and shielding them from rent increases for the next six months to support those who have lost income as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

This means that any residential lease that expired over the next six months would be automatically reinstated on a periodic basis, and would allow residential tenants to end their leases without incurring break fees.

“If we have lots of tenants refusing to pay rent — bear in mind they can still be sued for it and bear in mind they’ll lose their credit ratings and their capacity to get another tenancy will be severely impacted,” Mr McGowan told Jenna.

“I don’t think that will happen but we will monitor it to ensure if we do see large amounts of people refusing to pay their rent we’ll look at amending the laws again.”

“It’s not a pause on rents, it’s a pause on evictions — we expect people to pay their rents.”

Mr McGowan also said that banks “need to do the right thing” by not foreclosing on people’s mortgages, adding: “Everyone has to share some of the burden here — it’s not like one section of the community just escapes”.

The peak body for the WA real estate profession has broadly supported the six-month moratorium on evicting residential tenants but is concerned it could adversely impact some landlords.

REIWA president Damien Collins told Jenna he supported no evictions or break lease fees for people impacted by coronavirus but does not believe it should apply to everyone.

“Basically all leases now can be broken regardless, so if you haven’t lost your job or suffered from COVID-19 you can break your lease and based on the release yesterday also there is a no eviction policy for everyone, which again doesn’t make sense,” he said.

Mr Collins also said it was a shame the WA Government was not offering rent assistance to those genuinely in need as the NSW Government has done amid concern that some low income earners will struggle to pay thousands of dollars back after six months.

The NSW Government on Monday announced it would provide $440 million in relief for renters and landlords affected by coronavirus.

“A number of tenants will be able to get back on their feet and catch up on that back rent but the problem is there will be certainly low income tenants... they’ll never be able to make that money up,” Mr Collins said.

“That’s why we’re asking for a government assistance program, again very specifically targeted, that would have helped those people who realistically are never going to be able to make up the rent to pay that to the landlord.”